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5 Education Trends to Watch Out for in 2018

Last Modified : January 03, 2018

The education system has always been a dynamic institution throughout history. The technological advancement in the recent years has made traditional education system obsolete as there are new challenges faced by the Gen Y today. Watch out for these five education trends for 2018 that are proving to be a roaring success.

Digital Citizenship

A digital citizen is an individual who uses technology in order to engage in various aspects of life like politics, government and education. Gone are those days when students hurled in front of the library to research for their projects; fight over the last book on the given topic. Technology has undeniably become the norm when it comes to education.

Google and other such similar search engines have taken care of the shortcomings that were faced by the students of that age. Students of this age have information at their fingertips, such is the charisma of technology.

But being a good digital citizen is more than just using the internet for your benefit. It is about connecting and integrating into ways you didn’t even know were feasible. The concept of digital citizenship is to create a positive culture among students, teachers and parents to promote and support responsible use of technology. Hence, it is a crucial element of the curriculum for any school.

Since parents and schools have finite control over the activities of children on social media, educating them from a young age on how and why to create a positive social impression is paramount to the changing education scenario in today’s world.

Makerspace

Makerspace is a movement that has caused quite the furore in the modern world education system. It is a space where DIY meets education. It encourages students to design, experiment, invent as they undertake science, engineering and dabbling. Right now we have a culture of students who know their way with technology but with makerspace that knowledge will pave the way to creativity.

There are already labs and libraries in the schools that encourage interaction of ideas among students, but for the schools to have a makerspace will allow their students to explore their own interests. They would learn to use tools, both physical and virtual, to develop creative projects that would benefit the community as a whole. It is a true opportunity to support personalised learning.

Increased Parent Engagement via Digitisation

Parents play a notable role in their children’s learning and have high educational aspirations for their children. Research suggests that parents who are more involved with their children’s homework and assignments, keep a tab on their activities via talking and other healthy methods and help plan their educational goals, their children have better grades and better behaviour at home and in school. This involvement with their children about the right form of education is made easy through the use of technology.

As engagement of parents with their children is always less than perfect because of the age gap and fast-paced environment today. Digitisation has enabled the schools to update the parents about their children’s progress through emails and other web-based tools like video conferencing, phone messages and newsletters. Now missing a PTA meeting due to prior engagements would not lead to missing out on your children’s care.

Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality

Virtual reality immerses the user in the imaginary world. But the use of it in the education system helps to bridge the gap between virtual and physical worlds. Augmented reality is taking the world by storm. It changes the way students see, imagine and learn about the world. It enables students and teachers to envision the 3D models in a real environment, in real time and at real scale.

Learning can be made fun, less intimidating and more informative with the help of augmented reality. It can be used to teach 3-dimensional designs, as a tool for presentations in class and also students can use it in or for developing their projects. It changes the way students interact with their surroundings and the way they materialize their subject content.

This system has, in fact, been adopted by several national and international schools, and institutions as a method of classroom teaching. Be it chemical science, biological science or social science, the use of virtual reality or augmented reality is undeniably a very useful teaching tool for the future generations.

The New Age of STEM

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics taught together in an interdisciplinary and applied approach is known as STEM education. It focuses on the cohesive learning of the real-world applications rather than treating them as separate and discrete subjects.

Adopting STEM education in the curriculum in a holistic manner is a key challenge for many schools facing economic backwardness in India. Yet it is an approach that enhances students’ analytical skills and inculcates interest towards science and technology, inspiring them to fly in the face of global, technology-driven society through teamwork, and inventive problem-solving.

STEM education in India has gained popularity with the help of various autonomous institutions which work under the government as well as private organisations like India STEM Foundation, National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and World Robot Olympiad Association (WRO).

The year 2018 is expected to be a powerful one for the education sector. Several new developments and ranges of themes and issues will pace up the transformation of the education landscape for the better.